The Bird Nurses
by Stinkbug Genocide
Summary: Wednesday and Morticia find themselves alone in the Addams house, so Morticia entertains her daughter with a story.


The usual locomotion going on in the Addams house has ceased, for Gomez Addams had offered to take his son Pugsley to go crocodile watching at the Okefenokee Swamp for some "father-son bonding". Uncle Fester, being Uncle Fester, decided to tag along, leaving behind Lurch, Thing, Wednesday, Grandmama, and Morticia, but since his aid wouldn't be necessary for the next few days, the butler left to take some time off from housekeeping. Grandmama spent most of her days in her bedroom hovering over her cauldron with Thing fetching the needed ingredients; thus, it were only the matriarch and her daughter roaming about the large mansion.

Morticia kept herself sated with her usual routine, but only for the first couple of hours. Even painting and caring for her precious man-eating plants proved to be mundane after a while. She was lonely, and upon realizing that, she set off to find her daughter.

Once the mother had reached the kids' bedroom door, she gave it a hard knock and waited. Nothing. Bored and curious, she creeked the door open and stepped inside. She swept her eyes throughout the room but found no human lifeform whatsoever. Perhaps she's gambolling through the graveyard, Morticia thought to herself.

She was just about to head outside when her dear daughter cried from the upper story, "Mother, come quick!"

Morticia found herself at the attic in no time flat, her heart beating so fast she could taste copper in her mouth. She had no need to be afraid, though, for her daughter was just fine and only wanted to show her mother her findings.

There sat Wednesday with a pleased smile and an object in front of her so obscure Morticia had to walk across the room just to see what it was that got her little one so excited. That object turned out to be a sixteenth century doctors mask.

"What's this?", Wednesday asked, gesturing toward the mask.

Morticia chuckled to herself and replied, "It's an old doctors mask, sweetheart; this one's only for decoration purposes. I wonder why it's up here?"

The daughter stared in amazement. "You mean doctors used to wear these? Why did they stop? These are way cooler!"

"I don't know either, but I do know that physicians wore them during the Bubonic Plague." And there they sat for the rest of the afternoon and the entire evening examining the mysterious mask.

After quite some time, Morticia rubbed at her eyelids and gazed through the enormous bay window and saw that it was well into the night. She turned her gaze towards Wednesday, but the latter knew what was coming next.

"But I'm not tired," she interrupted her mother, but scrambled out when the Mrs. narrowed her eyes at her.

Despite her own exhaustion, Mrs. Addams still craved company and followed her girl to her and her brother's shared bedroom. She stood at the door frame awkwardly before coming in and sitting beside Wednesday up on the bed.

"Do ... you want me to tell you a story?"

"Mother, I'm nine years old. Aren't I too old?", asked she.

"Nonsense!"

"Oh, well, okay," Wednesday answered. "I'd like to hear it."

Morticia thought back to the garment left behind in the attic and beamed, "I'll be right back. Don't you go anywhere." In minutes she returned wearing the strange doctors mask. Wednesday giggled under the covers.

"This tale is about a woman and her child who lived in England long, long ago," her mother began.

* * *

Violet stared proudly at the stack of novels she had recently defiled. Her victory was short-lived, however, as she could hear heavy footsteps approaching. With no hesitation, she snuck out the back end of the village library, a quil snug under her apron, and plunged into the pool of people running their daily errands at the market. There, she moved from booth to booth until finally nearing the forest where she took off running to her and her mother's tent. As she ran, she could faintly hear the librarian yell in frustration all the way back from town.

"Good. You're back," muttered Rose, the mother, as Violet slipped back inside the tent. Rose finished polishing her tools and sauntered over to sit next to her daughter. "I was beginning to get worried; I had already closed up shop and you still hadn't returned."

"I was at the local library," replied the mischievous daughter, her hands destracted by a dead frog she had found in the woods on her way home.

"You're always at the library," observed Rose. "What have you been doing all this time there?"

"I've been drawing on their books."

Rose laughed. "So you're the Book Bandit? I should've known, you sneaky girl! But don't do it anymore; that's vandalizm, and I'm afraid you'll get caught." And with that, she blew out the candle and the both of them fell asleep.

Violet was delighted to see that the sun had risen when she had woken up, and was just about to head out when she heard her mother say, "Violet... ."

"Yes, mother?"

"You're not going to draw all over the books again, are you?"

"No... ."

Rose, now fully covered in doctor garb, looked the girl up and down and responded, "Good."

Violet cackled all the way to the village. Mother's not too bright, she thought. Her fun would end shortly, however, when she saw two homeless men on both sides of the entrance. Scared, she scurried back home.

Her mother examined her terror-stricken daughter as she was treating a wounded knight and asked with great concern, "What happened? Did you get caught?"

Violet caught her breath and gasped, "No, mo- father, but there are guards watching over the library!"

Rose finished her surgery rather quickly and sent her patient away with a bandaged knee. She flipped over her sign from "Open" to "Closed" immediately and consoled the shaking youth.

"Dear, what did those men look like?", asked she.

Violet pondered for a moment. "They wore rags. It was weird!"

"Good Heavens! They must be the homeless gentlemen!"

Another night passed after their discussion. Violet woke up rather morose, for she felt as if she had no other activities to partake in. Her mother noticed right off the bat and cooed, "Why the long face, my darling?"

"Ah, dear mother. I am sad because I cannot play in the library anymore."

Rose smiled and walked over to the sulking body and cupped her face with her hands. "That may be so, but look on the brighter side of things; you gave those poor men a job!", she exclaimed.

"Really? Well, I guess I'm off to do some more bad things!", Violet declared and walked nonchalantly through the tent curtains before her dear mother could interject.

* * *

It took zero time for Wednesday to realize that the main protagonists were basically reincarnations of herself and Morticia. With that knowledge, she asked her mother, "Does that mean I can paint on the school walls without getting in trouble?"

"Definitely not!", her mother retorted and pecked her daughter's forehead with her beak. As Morticia made her way back to the door frame, she was stopped with a "Thank you for the story, mother" from Wednesday.


End file.
